Revisited a key Howard Hawks film, his first personal film with real relevance for his future career, the film that launched his reputation as a master of modern art, with a breakthrough role for Louise Brooks.

Two sailors are on "an endless cruise" around the world with a girl in every port, but on every girl Spike (Victor McLaglen) discovers the same anchor-inside-a-heart brand. Having landed into a fistfight with Bill (Robert Armstrong) Spike discovers the same brand on his own jaw. The brand belongs to Bill.

Having sailed on separate ships so far, at San Pedro the "two friends are signed as shipmates for life".

In Marseille Spike meets a stunning high diver, Marie (Louise Brooks), and when it's time to leave Spike tells Bill: "I ain't sailing. I'm in love". But he discovers the anchor-inside-a-heart brand even on Marie. Bill had known her while she was still Tessie back in Coney Island. Spike leaves Marie and makes up with Bill. They sail away together. Nothing will separate them again.

A Girl in Every Port is a fun picture, a display of Hawks's natural talent for comedy.

A tale of sailors living an eternal youth, sheiks with a harem around the globe. A film about arrested development, emotional immaturity. The Don Juan story starts with an embarrassment in Amsterdam, at the first stop based on Spike's little book of addresses of girls. Lena, the girl in Amsterdam, now turns up with three babies and a husband sporting a giant pipe. The second girl in Amsterdam takes Spike to a tandem bicycle ride, and when they topple over next to a windmill, Spike discovers her anchor-inside-a-heart bracelet.

Another disquieting revelation takes place at San Pedro when Spike and Bill are looking for a girl "with a figure like an eel". Having first erred on the door of a formidable matron they land upon a room with a three year old boy, who tells that "my daddy is a sailor" but that he is dead. He may or may not be Spike's son. The single mother returns and before leaving Spike and Bill discreetly stuff the son's hands with wads of cash. It is an emotional moment.

But the most emotional moment of the film is when Spike bursts into tears watching from his window the departure of a ship in which he believes Bill is parting from Marseille. Hawks always called this "a love story between men", and A Girl in Every Port is the first Hawksian tale of male camaraderie. They argue, they quarrel, they compete, they fight, but there is never any resentment when they make up.

Victor McLaglen was a veteran actor when he starred in this film. For Robert Armstrong (Denham in King Kong) A Girl in Every Port provided one of his first film roles.

A running gag in the film is Spike having to pull Bill's middle finger after a fistfight.

Hawks always rejected suggestions of homosexuality in his films. But already in this film the question is inevitable in the sequence in Central America in which Spike and Bill are looking for privacy so that they can fight. Policemen are observing their dubious behaviour in an atmosphere that brings to mind Liberty (1929) the comedy classic where Laurel and Hardy are trying to find a place where they can switch trousers.

I agree with Robin Wood and Todd McCarthy that there is a strong unconscious current of bisexuality in Hawks's films. Hawks who started his career as a film director in the roaring twenties was open-minded about life and unafraid of bringing bisexuality close to the surface. According to McCarthy Hawks's last film project was a remake of A Girl in Every Port, in the last scene of which Spike and Bill, as they are again called, share a bed.

That the Louise Brooks revelation took place in such circumstances makes sense. The collaboration of Howard Hawks and Louise Brooks evolved in conditions of mutual admiration and respect that lasted for life. On the strength of this role G. W. Pabst hired Brooks for Die Büchse der Pandora and Das Tagebuch einer Verlorenen. Hawks made a lasting contribution to a timeless star image, the polymorphic, ambivalent and androgynous Louise Brooks phenomenon.

The role of Marie is stereotyped but Louise Brooks transcends it and becomes a predecessor for all the classic Hawksian women played by Frances Farmer, Carole Lombard, Rosalind Russell, Katharine Hepburn, Jean Arthur, Barbara Stanwyck, Lauren Bacall, and Angie Dickinson.

A fascinating film although not a great one. There is a lack of emotional gravity except in a couple of scenes. True gravitas in Hawks emerges in The Dawn Patrol, although Fazil, made just before A Girl in Every Port but released afterwards, is a special case, unique and memorable.

The duration is sometimes given as a little over 60 minutes, but 20 fps seems a good speed, making prints run 76-78 min.

A print with good visual quality, sometimes good to fair, for a minute or so in low definition. This seems to be the standard U.S. version since in the intertitles the pal is called Bill, never Salami.

BEYOND THE JUMP BREAK: OUR PROGRAM NOTE BASED ON DONALD C. WILLIS:BEYOND THE JUMP BREAK: OUR PROGRAM NOTE BASED ON DONALD C. WILLIS:

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About Me

Antti Alanen (born 1955) is Film Programmer at National Audiovisual Institute (Finland), which runs the Cinema Orion in Helsinki. This diary is an irregular notebook and scrapbook of rough notes on films and related matters. Spoiler alert: I spoil everything because for me plot and conclusion are essential to discuss!

Jazz Record of the Week 29/2017

Jazz Record of the Week 29/2017

Freddie Redd Quartet: The Music from The Connection [1960] (Freddie Redd Six Classic Albums 2/6)

Jazz Record of the Week 29/2017

Introducing Freddie Redd (Freddie Redd Six Classic Albums 1/6)

Jazz Record of the Week 28/2017

Kenny Dorham: Jazz Contrasts

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Joe Henderson: Page One

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Miroslav Vitouš: The Bass

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Billie Holiday: Stay with Me (5 Original Albums 4/5)

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Billie Holiday: Songs for Distingué Lovers (5 Original Albums 3/5)

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Billie Holiday: Lady Sings the Blues (5 Original Albums Box Set 1/5)

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Jazz Record of the Week 8/2017

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Duke Ellington: Piano Reflections

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Miles Davis: Bitches Brew

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Charles Mingus Presents Charles Mingus

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Dollar Brand Quartet: Africa – Tears and Laughter

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Albert Ayler: Goin' Home

Jazz Record of the Week 49/2016

Charles Lloyd: Forest Flower, live at Monterey

Jazz Record of the Week 48/2016

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Jazz Record of the Week 47/2016

Django Reinhardt Vol. 6: 1940: Nuages

Jazz Record of the Week 43/2016

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Jazz Record of the Week 42/2016

Tomasz Stańko: Balladyna

Jazz Record of the Week 39/2016

Cannonball Adderley: Somethin' Else

Jazz Record of the Week 38/2016

Tommy Flanagan Trio: Overseas

Jazz Record of the Week 37/2016

Miles Davis: Miles Smiles

Jazz Record of the Week 36/2016

Red Garland Trio: Groovy

Jazz Record of the Week 35/2016

John Coltrane: My Favorite Things

Jazz Record of the Week 34/2016

The Dave Brubeck Quartet: Time Out

Jazz Record of the Week 33/2016

Christian Schwindt Quintet: For Friends and Relatives

Jazz Record of the Week 32/2016

Carola & Heikki Sarmanto Trio

Jazz Record of the Week 25/2016

Cecil Taylor: Silent Tongues

Jazz Record of the Week 24/2016

Sonny Rollins: A Night at the Village Vanguard (1957, 2 cd reissue 2016)

Jazz Record of the Week 23/2016

Charlie Mingus: Blues & Roots

Jazz Record of the Week 22/2016

Mal Waldron: Moods

Jazz Record of the Week 21/2016

Django Bates: Belovèd Bird

Jazz Record of the Week 20/2016

Jacques Loussier Trio: The Original Play Bach Vols. 1 & 2

Jazz Record of the Week 19/2016

Duke Ellington and Johnny Hodges: Side by Side

Jazz Record of the Week 18/2016

Ray Charles: Genius+Soul=Jazz. Complete 1956-1960 Sessions with Quincy Jones (Genius+Soul=Jazz, The Genius of Ray Charles, The Genius Hits the Road, and from The Great Ray Charles and The Genius After Hours)